Method of shoemaking



P 1936- P. w. VALENTINE METHOD OF SHOEMAKING Filed May 2, 1934 Patented Sept. 1, 1936 PAT METHOD 0F SHOE 1 Percy W. Valentine, Bros V i. Application May 2, 193%, Serial No. 723,424

ill (Claims. (Cl. l2-ld2) The present invention relates to shoe making and involves two main factors; first, making a shoe of the Goodyear welt type with a secure connection of the inner-sole to the upper and welt and including the step of uniting the upper and welt together before lasting, and, second, an improvement in the method of lasting an upper,

not merely in the making of Goodyear shoes, but for shoes of other characters as well.

The invention consists in the novel stem and combined methods hereinafter described and set forth in the appended claims.

in the drawing illustrating the invention,-

Fig. l is a perspective view, inverted as to position, of a connected shoe upper and welt in the lasted condition which results from the practice oi my invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary perspective view of a new form of welt used in the process of making a Goodyear welt shoe according to this invention; Fig. 3 is a-sirnilar view of a modified form of welt for the same purpose;

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view of a lasted shoe upper and innersole, as taken on a section across the forepart thereof, and illustrating the pulling over step of the lasting process;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view of a shoe upper with attached welt, made in accordance with this invention, prior to the lasting step;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view on a larger scale illustrating the generic pulling over step in the lasting operation of this invention;

Fig. 7 is a similar view showing the next sue-- ceeding step in one of the herein described species of the invention;

Fig. 8' is a fragmentary sectional view showing the attachment between the upper, welt, and innersole made in accordance with one species of the invention with the use of the welt shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 9 is a View similar to Fig. 8 showing the equivalent construction made with the use of the welt shown in Fig. 3;

Fig. 10 is a fragmentary sectional view of acompleted Goodyear welt shoe produced according to the invention.

Like reference characters designate the same parts wherever they occur in all the figures.

In the making of welt shoes according to this invention, an upper a is cut with an outline and dimensions which will provide sufficient fullness in the finished shoe, and will have sufiicient over lap over the ,edge of the innersole for attachment to the latter by stitching, but with little or no excess requiring to be trimmed ofl thereafter.

'the innersole.

This upper may be of any character usual or suitable in shoe making; that is, it may be made of leather, or othermaterial, cut from a single piece or of a number of pieces stitched together, and may or may not have a lining of woven fabric, leather, or other suitable material. The illustration in the drawing is of the usual leather upper with a textile fabric lining; which is illustrative merely and has no limiting significance. The welt b is stitched to the outer face of the upper adjacent to the edges thereof, in a single length, or in two or more pieces joined together end to end, and extending around the forepart only, or around the entire circuit of the upper, according to the specific style of theshoe. This welt is accurately located with respect to the edges of the upper in such manner that when brought to position for connection with the innersole, the upper may be, by that action alone, shaped to give the required form and fullness to the finished shoe. In order to assist in placing the stitches c of the seam which unites the upper and welt together, in the proper location for this purpose, and also to leave in the welt a sufiicient margin for the stitches of the inseam, the welt is grooved lengthwise on its. flesh side, to make a groove (Z parallel with its edges. The stitches c are passed through the bottom of this groove. A second'groove e is cut into the same side of the welt between the groove (1 and that edge of the w elt which lies beside the stitch-receiving ribof The location of this latter groove is accurately established so as to leave sufficient margin for adequate strength in that part of the welt which is annexed to the innersole by the inseam. Instead of removing stock from the welt to make a groove, an equivalent channel for reception of the inseam may he made by cutting a slit (ii an inclination, as shown at e in Fig. 2. In either case the corner of the Welt strip at the nearer edge and at the grain side thereof, is preferably beveled or slsived away, as shown at Lin order to conform to the angle between the stitchreceiving rib and edge lip of the innersole, into which the margin of the upper is bent before or during the inseaming operation.

In my preferred method of making a welt shoe,

I use an innersole g, of, which the stitch-receiving rib h is made by channeling inward from the edge of the sole and bending up the flap, since this formation leaves the lip or flange of the innersole thinner than its main body and provides more space for reception of the margin of the upper than exists when the innersole rib is made 55 v preattached welt and upper are bent around the otherwise. However, I do not limit my claim for protection narrowly in this particular.

In the lasting or forming step, the edges of the and the innersole flange, and the margin of the welt is crowded into the angle. Indeed the welt acts as a tucking tool in cooperation with the innersole rib to bend the marking of the upper and tuck the bend into this angle.

Thereafter the stitches i of the inseam (Figs. 8, 9 and 10) are sewed through the margin of the welt, the upturned margin of the upper, and the rib h of the innersole close to the base of the latter, these stitches being located in and by the groove e, or correspondingly the channel e. Finally the shoe is finished in the way usual in the making of welt shoes; i. e., by placing a filler :i in the space surrounded by the rib h, laying on an outer sole is, and uniting the outer sole to the welt by stitches l, as shown in Fig. 10.

The forming of the upper may be effected by pulling it over a last (shown at m in Fig. 4), on the bottom of which the innersole has previously been placed; and this pulling over operation is preferably performed mechanically by clamps or equivalent instrumentalities, illustratively shown by dotted lines at 12. These clamps or equivalent means are engaged with the outer portions of the welt, and are moved in directions approximately indicated by the arrows in Fig. 3. The portions of the welt engaged by such clamps or equivalent instruments, serve as abutments on which the clamps or any other suitable means or tools act in pulling over the upper and in crowding it into the outer rib angle of the innersole. Preferably the inner surface of the upper, or its lining, is coated adjacent to the margin with a film o of cement; and the surfaces of the flange and rib of the innersole also coated with cement p, as shown in Fig. 6. These cementitious films are preferably of a character which will cohere with one another strongly immediately upon being brought into contact, so that the upper will be held in the formed condition after cessation of the pulling over force or pressure, and coupled to the irmersole until the inseam has been sewed. A variety of cements having these desirable qualities are available on the market, and include those of which rubber latex is the base, and other preparations of rubber. This use of cement eliminates necessity of temporarily securing the lasted upper by tacks and of subsequently pulling out such tacks or equivalent temporary fastenings.

The feature of the invention which consists in applying a rib or shoulder to the upper before lasting, embodied in the use last described of a pre-attached welt, is available also for the automatic lasting of shoe uppers in the course of making welt shoes according to the old standard practice in which the welt is fed into place during the inseaming operation. It is also available for making other types of shoes such as McKay and turn shoes. A variant of my invention for use in any of the processes except that with the Dre-attached welt,-is illustrated in Figs. 6 and '7. Here a temporary abutment b, which may be a strip of leather, a hard twisted cord, or anything else wide enough to be stitched to the upper and solid enough to serve as an abutment for pulling over instruments, is stitched to the upper by a seam r. The upper is then pulled over the edge of the last and innersole (or outer sole in the case of a' turn shoe) by instruments which are applied to exert force in approximately or substantially the direction indicated by the arrows s in Fig. 6. After the upper has been pulled over and united to the sole by cement of the character above in dicated, the temporary abutment is stripped off, as shown in Fig. '7, and the shoe finished by the appropriate final step suited to its character. The illustration of Figs. 6 and? is that of a Goodyear welt shoe; but it will be understood by those skilled in the art, without further specific illustration, how the essentials of this step are used for making McKay sewed shoes, turn shoes, etc.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: v

1. The method of shoe making which consists in attaching an abutment strip to a shoe upper adjacent to that margin of the upper which is intended for attachment to the inner. sole of a shoe, applying force to such abutment strip so as to pull said margin around the edges of a ribbed innersole and crowd the same into the angle between the edges and rib of the sole, and stitching such rib, the marginof the upper anda shoe welt together.

2. The method of shoe making which consists in attaching an abutment strip to a shoe upper adjacent to that margin of the upper which is to be attached to the innersole of the shoe, applying force to such abutment strip to pull the upper around the edges of a ribbed innersole and crowd such margin into the angle between the stitch-receiving rib of the innersole and its edge portion, securing the upper to the innersole by cement, removing the abutment strip, and stitching together the rib of the innersole, the contiguous part of the upper and a shoe welt.

3. The method of shoe making which consists in attaching an abutment strip to a shoe upper adjacent to its margin, applying force to such abutment strip so as to pull the margin of such upper around the edges of, and into engagement with, a. sole element, connecting the overlapping parts of said upper and sole together by adhesive, passing stitches through contiguous parts of the upper and sole, and finishing the shoe.

4. In the method of shoe making, the steps which consist in attaching an abutment strip to one face of a shoe upper adjacent to the margin thereof, applying a film of cementitious adhesive to the opposite face of the upper adjacent to such margin, applying similar adhesive to the marginal portion of a sole element, exerting force against said abutment strip in a direction to pull the edge of the upper over the margin of said sole and to force the cemented side of the upper against the cemented area of the sole, and passing stitches through contiguous parts of the upper and sole.

5. The method of shoe making which consists in pre-attaching a grooved welt to a shoe upper adjacent to the edge of the upper. by stitches placed in a longitudinal groove in the outer face of the welt, bending the edges of the upper across the lip of an innersole and exerting force by means of the. welt to crowd the upper into the angle between such margin and the stitch-receiving ri b of the innersole, and passing stitches throughth'inner marginal part of the welt, the

stitch-receiving rib of the innersole, and the intermediate upturned marginal part of the upper.

6. The method of shoe making which consists in providing a welt with grooves in one surface such welt with its grooved face outward against the face of a shoe upper adjacent to the margin thereof which is to be attached to the sole of the shoe, sewing the welt and upper together in the groove of the welt more remote from said margin, bending the attached upper and welt over the lip of an innersole having a stitch-receiving rib and crowding the upper and welt into the angle between the flange and rib of such innersole, and stitching the welt, upper and rib together by stitches laid in the other. of said grooves.

7. The method of shoe making which consists in first attaching an upper and welt together contiguous to the edge of the upper which is designed to underlap the innersole of the shoe, providing an innersole having an outstanding stitchreceiving rib on one face, forcing thewelt and the contiguous part of the upper into the angle between the rib and flange of such innersole in such manner that the edge of the upper is bentaround the adjacent edge of the welt-and confined between the latter and the rib of the innersole, and then stitching through such rib, the contiguous part of the welt, and the interposed marginal part of the upper.

8. The method of shoe making which consists in stitching a welt to an upper near that margin of the upper which is designed'for connection with the innersole of a shoe, but so that said margin projects beyond the nearer edge of the welt, applying adhesive to the opposite face of the upper on a zone contiguous to the said margin, providing an innersole having an outstanding stitch-receiving rib at one side and coated with cement on the outer side of said rib and the adjacent surface of the flange part of the innersole, turning the welt and upper around the edges of the innersole in such fashion that the cemented surfaces of upper and in nersole are pressed together and the protruding margin of the upper is bent around the adjacent edge of the welt and crowded into the external angle between the rib and flange of the innersole, and stitching through the inner marginal part of the welt, the rib of the innersole,

and the interposed marginal part of the upper.-

9. A shoe comprising an upper, an innersole.

having a stitch receiving rib, a welt, a seam connecting the welt to the upper, and a second seam connecting the upper and welt to the base portion of the innersole rib; the edges of the innersole being extended outwardly across the stitches of the first seam, and the upper being in contact with the outer side of the innersole in the outer angle between the edge and rib of the innersole.

10. A shoe as set forth; in claim 9, in which the welt is formed with a plurality of stitch-receiving channels substantially parallel to its edges, in the face thereof away from the upper, said seams being located each in one of said channels.

PERCY W. VALENTINE. 

